Students accept 'hollow' victory

The Manchester University students handed victory in BBC's University Challenge after their rivals from Oxford were disqualified for fielding an ineligible candidate have branded their triumph "hollow". Corpus Christi College - who beat Manchester 275 to 190 in the long-running quiz show's grand final - were dramatically stripped of the title by the BBC after it emerged team member Sam Kay had already graduated and was in full-time employment. Manchester contestant Henry Pertinez, 27, said their rivals "beat us fair and square" and that his team had been awarded the series title "on a technicality". "It's a hollow victory," he added.

THE Manchester University students handed victory in BBC's University Challenge after their rivals from Oxford were disqualified for fielding an ineligible candidate have branded their triumph "hollow".

Corpus Christi College - who beat Manchester 275 to 190 in the long-running quiz show's grand final - were dramatically stripped of the title by the BBC after it emerged team member Sam Kay had already graduated and was in full-time employment.

Manchester contestant Henry Pertinez, 27, said their rivals "beat us fair and square" and that his team had been awarded the series title "on a technicality". "It's a hollow victory," he added.

More than 5.3 million, a record audience, tuned in to see last week's final which featured Corpus Christi's brainbox contestant Gail Trimble.

The 26-year-old Latin scholar scored two-thirds of her team's 1,200 points before the final and has been described as the "best contestant ever".

Manchester's team captain, Phd student Matthew Yeo, 25, said of the disqualification: "We abide by the decision of the judges. We are obviously saddened by the whole experience of the last 48 hours.

"This is certainly not how we wanted to be awarded the trophy and to be crowned champions of University Challenge. We feel not only has this detracted from the award but also detracted from the enormous fun of being on University Challenge."

Corpus Christi's Kay took a job with accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers after graduating with a first in Chemistry last June. He then travelled to the Granada TV studios to join his teammates for filming in Manchester during the latter stages of the competition.

He said: "I hugely regret not confirming my change of status to the University Challenge programme makers before the final rounds. I had honestly believed I was eligible as I had indicated my course dates when I applied."

The BBC launched an investigation after reports of Kay's status emerged at the weekend. University Challenge quizmaster Jeremy Paxman said: "I suppose it is mildly embarrassing but I do feel sorry for the Corpus Christi team - I mean they were all legitimate students when it started. But rules are rules, and they had to be stuck to."

Bamber Gascoigne, who was the host of the quiz from 1967 until 1987 slammed the BBC and described the situation as 'fiasco'.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight he said: "It's a fiasco for the BBC comparable to the one that engulfed the final Celebrity Come Dancing."

"To fail to produce a University Challenge based on university life not within a single university year is pathetic."

Gascoigne pointed out that the decision to record the series over two academic years, with the early rounds record in May and the later rounds recorded in the Autumn, meant that final year students were ineligible for the quiz.

"It means that anyone in their last year at university cannot take part in University Challenge and that for most students is one third of their time ... For the BBC to have gone along with a rule that enshrines that, is extraordinary,

Gascoigne added: "Are you saying that third-year students who are not planning to do later education are therefore disqualified from University Challenge? The whole point of University Challenge is the team that comes on at the start is the team that goes on.

"This whole system which has been allowed to happen is totally contrary to the rules and the nature of University Challenge. We recorded within the one academic year and this problem never could arise. I don't know how anyone got to the idea that you record half in one year and half the next."